 "Photo: Peyton McGee/The Daily Texan")
“Some of you might be wondering what the sign is for vagina monologues,” signed Lauren Kinast to audience members in Jester Auditorium on Saturday night.
The Gender and Sexuality Center has put on performances with interpreters present in years past, but Friday and Saturday marked the first time “The Vagina Monologues” was performed solely in American Sign Language. Interpreters narrated the performance for the signing-impaired.
Laughter rippled through the auditorium as Kinast, the assistant director of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services, explained that the name of the monologues would vary between actresses. ASL gave no official pronunciation for the series of personal vignettes on female sexuality, she said.
Director Don Miller said through an interpreter that he was approached a month ago by Kinast to do an ASL performance of the monologues.
“She said that we needed people from the community, so of course I volunteered,” Miller said.
Auditions ended two weeks before opening night, he said. The cast did a full run-through of the show the night before.
Franky Ramont, a senior lecturer Department of Linguistics and one of the seven women performing, said through an interpreter that she had done some acting a few years ago and enjoyed it.
“When I was offered the chance to do this again, I couldn’t say no,” she said.
The performances, sponsored by Services for Students with Disabilities and UT for Rural Enhancement Through Education & Design, was part of V-Day, a movement to combat violence against women and girls worldwide.
Proceeds from the performances benefited the movement, SafePlace-Deaf Services and the rural enhancement group’s Mali Signs Project, a program that provides health care information to the deaf and hard of hearing in that country.
“I had never seen [the play] in American Sign Language before, so it was really cool,” said Lynn Hou, a linguistics graduate student, through an interpreter. Hou said she had seen other performances with an interpreter present, but nothing like this.
“I thought the show was very inspirational, and it was very educational as well,” Hou said.
Mindi Gould, a sign language interpreter, said the monologues were more graphic in ASL.
“I think it was more moving, almost, because it’s visual,” Gould said.
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